This invention relates to the fields of horology and electronic scheduling, and more specifically to an invention and a method which allows the user to enter, display, review, and modify specific cyclical shift or platoon scheduling data, besides allowing the normal functions of a digital wrist watch such as keeping track of the time, the date, and any alarms that the user sets.
There are many professions in which personnel work a cyclical shift schedule. These personnel include those in the fire fighter, medical, law enforcement, and security professions. The traditional method of keeping track of when a specific platoon (i.e., A, B, C or D) will be or is on duty or at work has required that a printed calendar containing the schedules be created and then copies made and distributed to all personnel. The personnel would then have to refer to this calendar for scheduling months or even years ahead. However, it is not always possible or practical for an individual to carry a calendar around with them, and they are constantly faced with the problem of knowing what shift they will be working or already have worked when a schedule calendar is not available.
Several patents have been granted for electronic time management schedulers and calendars. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,868,800; 4,774,697; 4,712,923; 4,769,796; 4,548,510; 4,534,012; 4,459,036; 4,415,271; 4,303,995; and 4,162,610. The embodiments of the 4,774,697 and 4,303,995 disclose the combination of the electronic time management schedulers with a wristwatch, and the 4,534,012 patent uses both a portable system (i.e., a wristwatch) and an external stationary station. These patents all allow the user to enter dates (and sometimes text with the date) that the user either wants to store for future reference or wishes to be reminded of when the entered dates arrive. None of these patents discloses a system that may be used to enter, display, review and modify cyclical shift or platoon schedule information without entering each and every date and time that each shift or platoon will be working. Therefore, any generalized scheduler is not useful for such platoon-type scheduling.
It is the object of this invention to provide a system that will allow an individual who needs to keep track of shift schedule information to enter, display, review and modify that information on a full-function wrist watch. The system allows the user to enter, display or modify scheduling information for two to four platoons or shifts, with a maximum of three shifts allowed in a given twenty-four hour period. The preferred vehicle for this invention will be an electronic digital timepiece using a digital liquid crystal display that employs programming logic sufficient to fulfill the aforementioned scheduling functions, while also including time and date display, a chronograph function, and an alarm clock with chime. It also is preferred that the timepiece be at least water resistant, particularly for firefighters.
These and other advantages and objects of this invention will become apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.